A new (final?) Internal crisis in the ICC!

An Appeal to the proletarian camp and to ICC militants

IGCL Statement about the ICC Communiqué to its readers(May 9th, 2014)Our group notes the ICC’s silence and lack of any denial about the reality of a serious organizational crisis within it and about the new questioning within the ICC itself of the "militant" Avril-Louise-Morgane’s behaviour. The IGCL won’t respond to the cartload of insults that the ICC presently pays our group (as it did previously with the Internal Fraction of the ICC). We have other things to do. We leave it to the readers, the sympathizers and the militants of the Communist Left (included the ICC itself) to judge the quality of the "arguments" put forwards in this "communiqué" which contains nothing political (they even put us in mind the darkest years of stalinism). We refer them to our website and to our review Revolution or War in order to know the reality of our positions and our political orientations. The IGCL.

The ICC is once again in a new (open [1]) internal crisis, according to recent internal documents,’more serious’ than that of 2001 - such that ’in the Enlarged International Secretariat (14/09/2013), we had to ask ourselves whether the ICC could disappear?’ (extract from an internal bulletin). Soon, according to the smoothly running machinery set up during the previous crisis of 2001, Special Investigation Commission, Jury of Honor, Extraordinary Conference, enlarged and exceptional meetings, confrontations between militants, and self-criticism sessions, all called to the rescue!

Militant energy wasted on personal introspection and self-criticism filling dozens of pages of bulletins while sections of this organization were cutting back on their publications - where they hadn’t been completely shut down - or deciding to give up public meetings, no longer providing an intervention in the street and in struggles.

If not for a deliberate attempt to destroy an organization that has become a veritable sect and an attack at all levels of the Communist Left, if not for the need to try to help the few sincere militants remaining, who will surely be lost in the disaster if one doesn’t reach out to try to help them out of a terrible trap sprung upon them once again, we would have refrained from publicly intervening on such a matter yet undisclosed by the organization in crisis. Here, however, we have an emergency!

As always the same struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat

The origin and primary factor in this destructive new crisis, once again comes across through certain questionable behaviors (more than dubious, how can one not see the intervention of the bourgeoisie?) regarding the militant Avril-Louise, now Morgane, and those close to her. According to the principle critique, before he retracted and surrendered to the investigation commission, ’it is indeed necessary to acknowledge that these problems (all these Morgane’s destructive behaviors) are not specific to the immediate period but are present as we know them now, at least since the end of the fight against the last clan. One can even say that they’ve already appeared before, in a somewhat similar form’ [2].

The response of the person concerned and that of her supporters? A new indictment against a new clan: ’The ICC has been in crisis since 2009 with the beginning of the pogromist attack against Comrade Morgane.’

So, since the last crisis in 2001, Avril-Louise-Morgane would have continued her provocative and destructive behavior according to certain individuals, or again suffer the hate from a new clan ’ always fought with success according to reports from congresses and other conferences, and always reincarnated!- according to others.

The current critiques regarding Morgane’s behavior are far less severe than those that the Internal Fraction of the ICC, in particular, had brought up initially both in the ICC and publicly [3]: [4] :

’The charges against Morgane boil down to two questions: the comrade does not behave according to proletarian ethics; the comrade has not respected the statutes of the ICC for many years’ (interim report of the Jury of Honor) .

So the reaction of Morgane and her supporters was ’classic’ - a copy-&-paste of the 2001 experience, recounted in The History of the IS of the ICC (1996-2001)(1e partie) | (2e partie) of the IFICC: convening an internal ICC jury of honor, completely controlled by her supporters, which rushed to ’clear Morgane’s name’, a new investigation commission, with new accused summoned before it, forced to recognize their clannish wrongdoings, accusations against the former International Secretariat and the International Bureau, the two once again driven by the clan, and even against the very same Control and Conflict Regulation Commission (sic!) created from the 2001 crisis precisely to ensure that clans can never arise again! And threatening insistences to get more testimonies of militants and sections - since not as many as they would’ve liked have been made - either to defend Morgane, or self-criticism by admitting and denouncing the ’anti-Morgane’ sentiments issued or heard , or worse, any hesitation to defend her. Then avalanche of insults, of ’revolutionary indignation’ with each coming out ’pure as the driven snow’, all expressing themselves, competing with rigor, firmness and indignation in the name of morality (...sickening!)

’The proletarian body of the ICC - the spearhead and vanguard of the Communist Left - has been threatened internally by a parasitic crust which periodically secreted clannish monsters possessed by hatred and truly staggering destructive rage’ proclaims one of Lady Morgane’s staunch supporters.

But the destroyers are themselves the accusers. Here’s how the main critique of Morgane’s behaviors and thus the main accused, had to capitulate to the delegation led by Karim-Peter, the Lady’s husband: ’The October 2013 IB plenum mandated a team of four comrades [including Karim-Peter, the husband] to discuss with FK in order to better understand the ethical mentality behind the pogromist campaign against Morgane in which he played a pivotal role (...). FK recognises his responsibility for his key role in the scapegoating of comrade Morgane and its complete immorality (...) and he admitted that there is only a ’FK problem’ and not a ’Mo problem’. He also agrees that there is a continuity between the pogromist campaign and the ideology of both editions of the Pav clan’ [the 1995 and 2001 previous crisis] (Report of the delegation with FK, written in English

But, so that anyone can see for themselves this obvious intention to destroy militants, we’ll continue to quote the rest of this report. Since the acknowledgment of FK’s error, in fact the political capitulation, was not enough for the delegation, i.e. for Karim Peter-FM. For this one, the comrade had to kneel, to completely humiliate himself and pass for ’le dernier des salauds’ in the eyes of the entire organization by passing the buck, and thus accusing other militants; he no longer needs to be able to enjoy any authority or political reputation in the organization :

’While the comrade admits the error, he does so briefly and in general. But when encouraged to try and explain the reasons for the mistake and its history over the past decade or more, the comrade tended to contest a great number of details (...) that, in the end, have the effect of attenuating or excusing the fault and trying to share it more equitably with others [makes one vomit. no?]. At the same time, the comrade seemed emotionally detached from the events [He knows what awaits him - he had a ringside seat in 2001] so there was little expression of revulsion or remorse for the error that he has committed. It was though we were discussing a secondary theoretical error rather than combating the invasion of the most insidious forms of bourgeois ’morality’ into the organisation’ (idem). And page after page like this! Just sickening, as we said.

For us, it’s clear that there is a will and a conscious attempt to destroy the ICC militants, their communist convictions and their communist commitment, which was initiated - it’s true - for a good twenty years now. Certainly, a final step will be taken with this crisis.

For now, there are more urgent matters. The liquidator faction of the ICC will exploit this new crisis to destroy what’s left of the achievements and militant conviction of its members to again nauseate the few younger ones who have not already left - even though integrated on an opportunistic political basis and already obnoxious after its imposition following the 2001 crisis. Worse, it will continue to misrepresent and betray the positions of the communist left - hasn’t it already presented itself internally as the good old ’Left’? Directly in line with Marx, Rosa Luxemburg [5], and with the militant MC of the Italian Left in France from 1938 to 1945, of the Gauche Communiste de France up to the 1950’s, founder of the ICC, against ’all minorities of the right [clan] and the vast hesitant centrist ICC majority?’ (You must read the hagiography of the incredible Avril-Louise-Morgane, a legend, screaming with laughter, which was put into a report - with a statue? [6]). Externally, she will continue her work to sabotage the process of aggregation, debate and confrontation of political positions, especially to hinder any polarization around the only truly international organization which remains the ICT [7] - which she has called on to destroy - and to smear the reputation of the Communist Left in the eyes of as many as possible.

If, apart from a historical situation of war or revolution, it is difficult for an organization to pass completely into the bourgeois camp, one can say (and yet more reading of countless internal texts that make you feel like throwing up) the ICC is dying; or at least turning into a destructive monster.

Address to the ICC comrades

Address to the ICC comrades still sincerely wishing to enroll in the struggle for communism who are either repulsed by what is happening, or still can’t come to understand any of it: do not allow yourselves to fall silent or into psychological self-criticism; reject the clannish terrain as an explanation of organizational crises! Fight on the political terrain against these politics which, in addition to delusions of morality, revolutionary indignation, clan hatred, etc., led to the questioning of the original positions of the ICC and Marxism. The discipline that they try to impose on you is not Communist discipline. It is rather its negation and kills you. We must reject these outrageous trials that only seek to destroy your militant convictions and to make you despair of the communist organization .

We can help. Our group is ready to hold discussions with you, to correspond and to meet with you, so that you can lead the internal battle. But this fight, in view of the situation and internal climate of the ICC, in view of the attacks, pressures, blackmail, threats that you are undergoing, the hostility of comrades whom you considered yesterday as friends, etc., is a fight that you can only lead with the support of the whole proletarian camp and the lessons of the whole Communist Left. You must try to conduct an internal struggle, but by relying on the entire Left and, if possible, forming an organized minority, that is an internal fraction - suffice to say, formed on the platform of the ICC and its original statutes.

That’s how our group, only just formed, concluded our position on the 20th Congress of the ICC:’Finally, we appeal to ICC militants trying to straighten out their organization, one increasingly plagued by opportunism, to point out that the ICC is actually failing. We must fight against the demoralization that this brings. We are currently in a period of rising class struggle. The proletariat needs its political organizations, now more than ever, to advance toward proletarian revolution. A weakening of the ICC remains a weakening of proletarian camp as a whole. And a weakening of the proletarian camp necessarily implies a weakening of the proletariat in the class struggle.’ (Revolution or War # 1, The 20th Congress of the International Communist Current

Address to the whole proletarian camp

Address to the whole proletarian camp, first to the ICT and communist groups, but also to all supporters of the Left and its organizations: do not let those sincere members of the ICC who are baffled, alarmed, on the edge of resignation and despair, and trapped overall in a discipline that’s in no way proletarian and all bourgeois totalitarian methods. We must reach out to them , show them that they can find help and support in their approach as militants, inviting them to contact to discuss and debate with us, to show that the Communist Left is not the ICC .

In the face of their umpteenth internal crisis, let us respond together to rid the communist Left of this process of dispersion and fragmentation! At a time when the historical situation of our class becomes increasingly dramatic and where its historical responsibility is increasingly urgent in response to the crisis of capital and the race towards generalized war, organizations of the Communist Left, that is to say, expressions of the most advanced class consciousness, namely, the political vanguard of the proletariat, are essential. Like it or not, despite our real political differences, and before history and before the proletariat, we are all building this vanguard together, called to assume the political leadership of the proletariat in the historical class drama to come. Like it or not, this ICC crisis and its consequences will still be a blow to the credibility of the Communist Left and a blow to all its organizations, participating in the weakening of the political convictions and communist commitments of militants and sympathizers. Like it or not, while we are on the same side of the class barricade, we have to learn to live with our differences, try to question and discuss, and where possible to overcome them; but again it is necessary that we see ourselves as as belonging to the same camp.

In this the umpteenth ICCs crisis that is certainly the one in which it will sclerose forever, two opposing historical forces that go far beyond the fate of this organization are beginning to face off: one to sabotage and annihilate the whole process of unity and consolidation of the communist political vanguard; while the other tries to fight the former and impose an inverse dynamic.Which trend will prevail over the other, what dynamics will prevail over the others in the communist left? Fundamentally, it’s a fight to the death, on the level of communist minorities, between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. This is what is at issue and it affects everyone!

PS: Internal documents of the ICC on this ’trial’ are available to organizations and groups of the Communist Left who ask us for them.

[1] For, in fact, they even go so far as to proclaim that the crisis has been going on for 30 years - that is, since the death of MC, a militant of the 1920-30’s, main founder of the ICC and the opening of the ’pogrom’ campaigns against a so-called ’Left’ formed of the only disciples-heirs of MC, i.e. Avril-Louise Morgane and her husband, FM-Peter-Karim, and the dominance of clan spirit against MC and against the Left. A reading of tens of pages inventing a story i.e. the glory of our two illustrious leaders, especially Louise-Morgane whose fate is like that of Rosa Luxemburg, herself a victim of pogromism, one doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

[2] Excerpts: ’we were 4 friends with Morgane, she did not talk much but afterwards only made critiques of the IS, to go see a friend to criticize, and pass off ones critiques through these comrades ¦ the comrade can behave in a devastating and very violent manner (...) harsh words, of a ferocity that I had never encountered before ... (...) it takes harsh words, indeed intolerable, on comrades or those close to them (...) denigrating the wife X of comrade Y.’

[3] See the History of the International Secretariat of the ICC (IFICC) : (1st part)|(2nd part) [only in French]

[6] One day, no doubt, if conditions allow, many will ask her for explanations and she will have to explain herself as there are many questions about her behavior.

[7] As testified by internal balance-sheets - and the latest report (not discussed by the way!) on the Proletarian Political Milieu - made about recent exchanges between those two organizations; and received with caution and prudence by the ICT